The New Normal – 6-2 – Interlude – Lance
"…Yes, thank you…I am glad to hear that…yes, we can finalize those discussions soon…yes, speak to you later. Thank you." Lance put down the phone and let out a relieved breath; it seems like his efforts at bringing Sinnoh on board were finally bearing fruit. They had finally given confirmation that, within a certain timeframe, they would be opening their borders. He supposed he would get any further details from Elite Bertha soon.
Though Lance couldn't be sure if it was his attempts at diplomacy that was the tipping factor; he was aware of the growing internal strife within Sinnoh where the public was pushing for the opening of their borders. He suspected the real reason for their sudden desire to open up their borders were more to cater to their public opinion rather than his own actions.
No matter, so long as the borders got open, then that was all Lance truly cared about. Accomplishing a feat like that would be a great milestone and demonstrate to Indigo that he was working hard to be an effective and successful Champion.
A big win was something that he felt was needed considering the turmoil surrounding the Gyms and the attack at Devon Corp. Suddenly feeling the urge to check up on the former, he quickly went through some of the paperwork on his desk and retrieved the reports that he had about the current status of the Indigo Gyms.
That was the thing about being Champion, it was all about dealing with one problem after another and trying to stop the entire region from suddenly bursting into flames. No wonder Pryce was such a grouch after so many years of running this.
At least he had kept good council to support him that was willing to tell him what they truly thought. If he was surrounded by only those yes-men in the Committee, then he truly believed that he might turned out like Pryce. He shuddered at the thought.
But reading through the document in front of him allowed him to relax slightly. It detailed that the Gyms were mostly running smoothly. When he first became Champion, it had been a great shock to find out that the Gyms hadn't been doing nearly as well as he thought they were. And he knew that, even if blamed Pryce for his negligence for the Gyms' poor running, he knew that the public would still end up blaming HIM if the situation wasn't quickly resolved.
He was glad that the bigger concerns had mostly been laid to rest. Pewter City remained the most problematic of the Gyms, but Agatha had a firm hand on it. Or, like the report was suggesting, Agatha was practically on a vacation while she had her apprentice Karen doing all the work on her behalf. At least Karen seemed up to the task; even if the report labelled her as "competent yet overworked".
Before, Lance would have scoffed at her laziness. But now, as he settled into his position as Champion, he envied Agatha's ability to delegate so shamelessly. If he could throw everything at Clair without being fed to one of his own Dragonites, he would have.
Surprisingly, with Pewter City under new, and competent management, it was the Johto Gyms that were currently more of a cause for concern for Lance. The status of Olivine's Gym was still mostly up in the air, but they had appointed a new successor who should hopefully be able to tackle the problems with a new perspective.
Then came the report about the Mahogany Gym, and how Pryce was installed as its new Gym Leader. Initially, Lance had received a few reports about how difficult Pryce was to work with. Knowing what working with Pryce was like, he had fully expected those. With how Pryce had been Champion for so many years, becoming a Gym Leader was quite the step down. It was an entirely new environment for the ex-Champion, and Pryce was likely very unused to it.
However, the more recent reports that Lance had received revealed a different picture. After the initial rocky stages of settling in, Pryce seemed to have calmed down and become more accepting of his new position. He was probably still an ass, but so long as he could maintain this new 'positive' attitude, coupled with his impressive reputation as an ex-Champion, Lance could cautiously say that the Mahogany Gym was in safe hands.
After skimming through a few more reports, he let out a satisfied smile as he put them all down. It appeared like, at least temporarily, Indigo wasn't suffering from any noticeable internal issues at the moment. Which was good, because this gave him time to focus on developing their foreign relations, which was badly needed considering the recent events with the resurgence of Team Rocket.
Speaking of Team Rocket, he felt like now was finally the time to start pushing through his long-stated ambition of establishing an International Police force. After all, what better time to create such an institution when there was an immediate need for international cooperation to deal with an international terrorist threat?
Despite this thought, Lance felt a bit scummy for taking advantage of such a scenario to push through a political agenda, especially when it seemed like he was playing politics while lives were at real risk. At least John was over there doing good work. He wished him all the luck with capturing those criminals.
A part of him had wanted to rush over to Devon Corp to personally aid Hoenn with their struggles, but he couldn't just put down the responsibilities as Champion to do so. It was unfortunate, but this was one of those times where he would have preferred the freedom of the Elite Four over the responsibilities and powers of being Champion.
Shaking himself out of his introspection, he grabbed a nearby notepad and started jotting down a few ideas he had about how he would start implementing the creation of the Indigo Police. He had previous plans of course, but those would likely have to be scrapped considering the unusual circumstances that they were in.
After a few minutes of jotting everything down, he folded the page and left a reminder to call John about it later. He wanted to have a better idea on the current status of Hoenn, and the last thing Lance wanted to do would be to accidentally push too hard on an idea and unintentionally isolate the region even further. Especially not with the suspicions that were currently being levied against Silph Co.
Lance was sure those were bogus, but he knew that Gym Leader Giovanni was tasked with officially investigating the 'claims'. As far as he saw, Giovanni was doing good work to make use of his reputation to shield the company from the worst of the consequences while the investigation continued, buying time for the company and temporarily keeping a lid on any public outrage. He could only hope that it was enough; he really didn't need more problems.
With that done, Lance slumped into his chair and massaged his head with his fingers as he checked the time. He groaned when he saw that he was still in the early hours of the afternoon. A further sigh came out of him as he realized that it meant that he still had half a day of meetings to sit through.
Sometimes, he really did regret challenging Pryce for his position. He really wasn't that suited to dealing with the monotony of paperwork that accompanied his new position. But then he thought about all the positive changes that he did, and all the prestige that came with it. He comforted himself with the fact that, if Pryce was still at the helm, it was almost guaranteed that he would have muddled through their new relations with Sinnoh and may have failed to maintain healthy relations with Hoenn. That would have been disastrous. And indeed, a few newspapers had recognized and praised his actions.
His achievements were what made dealing with the paperwork worth it. And he still let out the occasional smile as he saw the title of 'Champion' in front of his name. He had yearned for the position for so long – it was only right that he enjoyed it.
And it was why he felt that his most important decision, ever since becoming Champion, was to get the Elite Four more actively involved in providing him with advice and interacting with the Committee. They all had great ideas, but more importantly, kept him honest and grounded so that he wouldn't turn out like Pryce did.
Then his thoughts were broken as someone knocked on his door. He let out an "enter", and his secretary carefully walked in, balancing another tower of reports in their hands that he was going to have to go through.
And he immediately took everything back. He hated this.
A.N. I felt like I needed to write a catchup Interlude to cover a few plot points that hadn't been addressed. I hope this covers them while finally giving some insight into Lance's POV as Champion!
This chapter has been BETAed by Allute! Cheers! And to anyone who wants to support me, please check out my p atreon at CartecTNN where you can read 8 advanced chapters! Thanks to those who have supported me already!